American Civil War: Casualties
The approximately 10,455 military engagements, some devastating to human life
and some nearly bloodless, plus naval clashes, accidents, suicides, sicknesses,
murders, and executions resulted in total casualties of 1,094,453 during the
Civil War. The Federals lost 110,100 killed in action and mortally wounded, and
another 224,580 to disease. The Confederates lost approximately 94,000 as a
result of battle and another 164,000 to disease. Even if one survived a wound,
any projectile that hit bone in either an arm or a leg almost invariably
necessitated amputation. The best estimate of Federal army personnel wounded is
275,175; naval personnel wounded, 2,226. Surviving Confederate records indicate
In dollars and cents, the U.S.
government estimated Jan. 1863 that the war was costing $2.5 million daily. A
final official estimate in 1879 totaled $6,190,000,000. The Confederacy spent
perhaps $2,099,808,707. By 1906 another $3.3 billion already had been spent by
the U.S. government on Northerners' pensions and other veterans' benefits for
former Federal soldiers. Southern states and private philanthropy provided
benefits to the Confederate veterans. The amount spent on benefits eventually
well exceeded the war's original cost.
Inflation affected both Northern and
Southern assets but hit those of the Confederacy harder. Northern currency
fluctuated in value, and at its lowest point $2.59 in Federal paper money
equaled $1 in gold. The Confederate currency so declined in purchasing power
that eventually $60-$70 equaled a gold dollar.
The physical devastation, almost all
of it in the South, was enormous: burned or plundered homes, pillaged
countryside, untold losses in crops and farm animals, ruined buildings and
bridges, devastated college campuses, and neglected roads all left the South in
Detailed studies of Union and
Confederate military casualties are found in Numbers and Losses in the Civil
War in America 1861-65 by Thomas L. Livermore (I901) and Regimental
Losses in the American Civil War, 1867-1865 by William F. Fox (1889).
Source: "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil
War" Edited by Patricial L. Faust